Raven (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
telltaleheart) wrote2011-07-10 11:07 am
telltaleheart) wrote2011-07-10 11:07 am
HEART WRITEUP
This was a lot of fun.
Okay so! Raven's heart had a slightly different premise than a normal heart. Raven doesn't really have a strong drive for himself or strong identity. (Or even identities - I could have had Raven/Schwann/Damuron/etc as separate manifestations, but they are not really distinctly separate people to him in Aather right now.) Because of that, there was no true desire/true self. In fact, Raven didn't appear in his own heart at all! Instead, the heart spelunkers were taking his place, to various degrees. Hopefully that was at least mostly clear. :|b
The goal of his heart was to be Raven (as... one person or another) and pull together the more fragmented/conflicting parts of himself (the NPCs, etc.) to do something! And, more generally, people's actions themselves affected Raven while in his heart. Refusing to do anything would have increased Raven's likelihood to refuse to do anything. Also if people had done that the monsters would probably have attacked them.
The monsters that NPCs kept mentioning represent Raven's insecurities, self-doubt and general issues with himself. Raven is not actually in that bad a place in Aather at the moment, so they are not actually as bad as he believes they are! They were eminently defeatable if anyone had decided to go for it, and he would probably have been a better person for it, at least for a while. Monsters don't ever just go away. :'D What sort of person he would have been would have depended on how they were defeated - by the guild members (guild mindset/morality), by the knights (knight mindset/morality), or even just by the heart spelunkers themselves arming themselves and going for it (making him rely more on himself and his friends in Aather than his remembered personas). Had both the knights and the guild members gone for it at the same time they would have ended up fighting each other and thus triggering a major personality conflict.
HOWEVER I didn't actually expect people to get to kill any monsters in the time given. I was expecting people to interact with a major NPC or two at most. So people pretty much precisely met my expectations!
I don't feel like copy-pasting the scene descriptions So I'm just going to go over what happened/what it means. Doing these in vaguely chronological order I guess.
Trees
A transitional area mostly! The tangled forest represents the confusion of his soul, etc. Would have been a battleground for monsters if people had gone looking for them later in the heart, or possibly if Ferris and Spitfire had climbed down from the parade ground instead of jumping.
Clearing of Mysterious Light (aka aer krene)
An aer krene is a thing from Raven's canon and the metaphor only really makes sense in that context. While an aer krene is kind of the lifeblood of the world, too much aer is poisonous/paralyzing. The aer krene represents Raven's memories/past/attachment to his party. He was pretty detached from it/them right now! But Spitfire cleared a path so that will be a little less the case.
Any time someone touched the aer krene itself they would have see a random memory. (Only Spitfire did this.)
River
The River of death, and more generally despair and depression. It is only a stream right now because those feelings don't run very deep! But he has the memories of it being worse and it has the potential to be more serious. Touching the water gave people a feeling of it, and for every person who touched the water it upped Raven's depressive tendencies a bit. (Kite and Misato did this.) The fire lilies represent a more wistful sort of loss, and would have been useful in a part of the heart no one got to.
Also sorry Kite you can't fix death. :(
City (Dahngrest)
Dahngrest is the city of Raven's heart! It is the place in his memories he feels most attached to. But it is also the center of a lot of conflicting feelings, particularly re: his relationship to the Don and his place in the guild, and more generally feelings towards leading vs. following. The arguing guild members represent that conflict.
There were a few different ways to resolve the conflict! Had someone talking to them expressed a willingness to go find the Don for them, it would have opened the path to Union headquarters where they could find and talk to Don Whitehorse. Or you could have done what Jaina was doing and offered to lead them herself! That was actually a better plan, although something Raven probably never would have managed on his own. Had someone retrieved the Don and had him lead them to fight the monsters, the Don would have died crossing the river, since... he's dead, and he would have repeated his last words that people take care of their friends and stand on their own two feet.
In that sense both Mitchell and Jaina were actually doing good things here. Jaina took on the persona of "Raven" to direct strategy with a completely confident and efficient manner - something Raven can do but is extremely reluctant to because he has no confidence in himself. Mitchell was getting dicey there for a second, but he told them to deal with things on their own, which rang true enough to the Don's words that it hit a good chord, although the heart fussed a bit (Raven doesn't think he can live up to the Don by any means.) Since both of them were in some sense being "Raven" at this point, that means Raven can display more confidence and direction!
...But then everyone fucked off to the tavern instead of using that to beat down his issues. :'D
Tavern
The Tavern of Bad Coping Mechanisms. Drinking, womanizing, lying, suicidal thoughts. Drinking here means partaking of these, and Jaina, Mitchell and (to a lesser extent) Misato did this! Kite also left a note that said "drink moderately", but given the setup of the heart that doesn't mean he's likely to drink moderately, just that he's likely to tell other people to do so. :|b Kite also got propositioned by a woman and turned her down, which means -10 to womanizing. Raven's still got plenty of other bad coping mechanisms to use though. Basically the actions here mean a lot more leaning to the carefree/lazy "Raven" persona as a way of deflecting responsibility and issues.
Parade Ground
A marble platform in the tops of the trees, this represents Schwann's good side and impossible ideals of knighthood! It is in the sun because Raven is still capable of seeing it in a good light right now. The switch on the underside of the stage would have turned off the sun and changed that.
The knights training on the platform represent the parts of him that go through the motions of being a knight. Taking an active leadership role here (as represented by taking a weapon and doing something with it on the stage, as Ferris did) triggers Lieutenant Leblanc to appear, who represents the knowledge that there are people who trust him and will follow his orders, and that it can be more than motions if he actually cares about it. Ferris did an admirable Captain Schwann! But again she left the knights behind and went off to recon on her own, avoiding the monsters. She did reinforce his positive impressions of the possibilities knighthood (which were already stronger than they were in canon, and now are more so) but it wasn't a major change.
Cave
The dark cave represents terrible things Raven's done, black depression, and being a tool, and the long gap of time containing those things that he doesn't really remember. It was possible to pass through the cave unharmed if you bring a light and follow the beaten path to the back! But wandering through the dark gets you probably shanked by Alexei. Spitfire and Ferris did this, although they got off easier than they might have because the heart was ending.
???
I think I am going to leave this part mysterious in case I decide to do something with it again in the future.
So basically the major changes are something like...
+ slight addition to depression (Kite and Misato touching the water)
+ connection to his past/memories/friends (Spitfire clearing the path)
++ tendency towards leadership/strategy (Jaina and Ferris leading and strategizing)
++ tendency towards independence rather than working with people/relying on people (Mitchell and Ferris)
+++ bad coping mechanisms (Jaina, Mitchell, Misato)
- womanizing (Kite)
+ to both fear and defiance of what he's done in the past (Spitfire and Ferris with Alexei)
ETA also upon reflection I think I will add
+ thinks Mitchell is kind of hot (Jaina)
Because it's hilarious.
We'll... see how this goes. AM I MISSING ANYTHING. Are there any questions.
Overview
Okay so! Raven's heart had a slightly different premise than a normal heart. Raven doesn't really have a strong drive for himself or strong identity. (Or even identities - I could have had Raven/Schwann/Damuron/etc as separate manifestations, but they are not really distinctly separate people to him in Aather right now.) Because of that, there was no true desire/true self. In fact, Raven didn't appear in his own heart at all! Instead, the heart spelunkers were taking his place, to various degrees. Hopefully that was at least mostly clear. :|b
The goal of his heart was to be Raven (as... one person or another) and pull together the more fragmented/conflicting parts of himself (the NPCs, etc.) to do something! And, more generally, people's actions themselves affected Raven while in his heart. Refusing to do anything would have increased Raven's likelihood to refuse to do anything. Also if people had done that the monsters would probably have attacked them.
The monsters that NPCs kept mentioning represent Raven's insecurities, self-doubt and general issues with himself. Raven is not actually in that bad a place in Aather at the moment, so they are not actually as bad as he believes they are! They were eminently defeatable if anyone had decided to go for it, and he would probably have been a better person for it, at least for a while. Monsters don't ever just go away. :'D What sort of person he would have been would have depended on how they were defeated - by the guild members (guild mindset/morality), by the knights (knight mindset/morality), or even just by the heart spelunkers themselves arming themselves and going for it (making him rely more on himself and his friends in Aather than his remembered personas). Had both the knights and the guild members gone for it at the same time they would have ended up fighting each other and thus triggering a major personality conflict.
HOWEVER I didn't actually expect people to get to kill any monsters in the time given. I was expecting people to interact with a major NPC or two at most. So people pretty much precisely met my expectations!
Layout/Areas
I don't feel like copy-pasting the scene descriptions So I'm just going to go over what happened/what it means. Doing these in vaguely chronological order I guess.
Trees
A transitional area mostly! The tangled forest represents the confusion of his soul, etc. Would have been a battleground for monsters if people had gone looking for them later in the heart, or possibly if Ferris and Spitfire had climbed down from the parade ground instead of jumping.
Clearing of Mysterious Light (aka aer krene)
An aer krene is a thing from Raven's canon and the metaphor only really makes sense in that context. While an aer krene is kind of the lifeblood of the world, too much aer is poisonous/paralyzing. The aer krene represents Raven's memories/past/attachment to his party. He was pretty detached from it/them right now! But Spitfire cleared a path so that will be a little less the case.
Any time someone touched the aer krene itself they would have see a random memory. (Only Spitfire did this.)
River
The River of death, and more generally despair and depression. It is only a stream right now because those feelings don't run very deep! But he has the memories of it being worse and it has the potential to be more serious. Touching the water gave people a feeling of it, and for every person who touched the water it upped Raven's depressive tendencies a bit. (Kite and Misato did this.) The fire lilies represent a more wistful sort of loss, and would have been useful in a part of the heart no one got to.
Also sorry Kite you can't fix death. :(
City (Dahngrest)
Dahngrest is the city of Raven's heart! It is the place in his memories he feels most attached to. But it is also the center of a lot of conflicting feelings, particularly re: his relationship to the Don and his place in the guild, and more generally feelings towards leading vs. following. The arguing guild members represent that conflict.
There were a few different ways to resolve the conflict! Had someone talking to them expressed a willingness to go find the Don for them, it would have opened the path to Union headquarters where they could find and talk to Don Whitehorse. Or you could have done what Jaina was doing and offered to lead them herself! That was actually a better plan, although something Raven probably never would have managed on his own. Had someone retrieved the Don and had him lead them to fight the monsters, the Don would have died crossing the river, since... he's dead, and he would have repeated his last words that people take care of their friends and stand on their own two feet.
In that sense both Mitchell and Jaina were actually doing good things here. Jaina took on the persona of "Raven" to direct strategy with a completely confident and efficient manner - something Raven can do but is extremely reluctant to because he has no confidence in himself. Mitchell was getting dicey there for a second, but he told them to deal with things on their own, which rang true enough to the Don's words that it hit a good chord, although the heart fussed a bit (Raven doesn't think he can live up to the Don by any means.) Since both of them were in some sense being "Raven" at this point, that means Raven can display more confidence and direction!
...But then everyone fucked off to the tavern instead of using that to beat down his issues. :'D
Tavern
The Tavern of Bad Coping Mechanisms. Drinking, womanizing, lying, suicidal thoughts. Drinking here means partaking of these, and Jaina, Mitchell and (to a lesser extent) Misato did this! Kite also left a note that said "drink moderately", but given the setup of the heart that doesn't mean he's likely to drink moderately, just that he's likely to tell other people to do so. :|b Kite also got propositioned by a woman and turned her down, which means -10 to womanizing. Raven's still got plenty of other bad coping mechanisms to use though. Basically the actions here mean a lot more leaning to the carefree/lazy "Raven" persona as a way of deflecting responsibility and issues.
Parade Ground
A marble platform in the tops of the trees, this represents Schwann's good side and impossible ideals of knighthood! It is in the sun because Raven is still capable of seeing it in a good light right now. The switch on the underside of the stage would have turned off the sun and changed that.
The knights training on the platform represent the parts of him that go through the motions of being a knight. Taking an active leadership role here (as represented by taking a weapon and doing something with it on the stage, as Ferris did) triggers Lieutenant Leblanc to appear, who represents the knowledge that there are people who trust him and will follow his orders, and that it can be more than motions if he actually cares about it. Ferris did an admirable Captain Schwann! But again she left the knights behind and went off to recon on her own, avoiding the monsters. She did reinforce his positive impressions of the possibilities knighthood (which were already stronger than they were in canon, and now are more so) but it wasn't a major change.
Cave
The dark cave represents terrible things Raven's done, black depression, and being a tool, and the long gap of time containing those things that he doesn't really remember. It was possible to pass through the cave unharmed if you bring a light and follow the beaten path to the back! But wandering through the dark gets you probably shanked by Alexei. Spitfire and Ferris did this, although they got off easier than they might have because the heart was ending.
???
I think I am going to leave this part mysterious in case I decide to do something with it again in the future.
Summary
So basically the major changes are something like...
+ slight addition to depression (Kite and Misato touching the water)
+ connection to his past/memories/friends (Spitfire clearing the path)
++ tendency towards leadership/strategy (Jaina and Ferris leading and strategizing)
++ tendency towards independence rather than working with people/relying on people (Mitchell and Ferris)
+++ bad coping mechanisms (Jaina, Mitchell, Misato)
- womanizing (Kite)
+ to both fear and defiance of what he's done in the past (Spitfire and Ferris with Alexei)
ETA also upon reflection I think I will add
+ thinks Mitchell is kind of hot (Jaina)
Because it's hilarious.
We'll... see how this goes. AM I MISSING ANYTHING. Are there any questions.
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Probably a good thing Spitfire and I got knocked out or Ferris would have seriously tried fighting Alexei, too. :x
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I APPROVE OF THE EDIT LOLOLOL.
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Also
+ thinks Mitchell is kind of hot (Jaina)
Beautiful.
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it will be fuuuuuuun~
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